Apple losing market share to Samsung

Apple continues to lose ground to arch-rival Samsung at an alarming rate.

For a while now the the Apple frenzied press has been preparing the world by warning Apple will lose some market share as Samsung's latest smartphone comes out before the new iPhone.

But according to new figures, which were compiled before Samsung released its latest smartphone, Apple is already in trouble.

Research firm IDC said Samsung grabbed more smartphone market share from archrival Apple in the latest quarter, with sales of its phones jumping to account for one third of the global market.

While sales of the iPhone 5 helped Apple's volumes grow 6.6 percent to 37.4 million phones in the quarter from a year earlier, it was not enough to stop its share of the market dropping to 17.3 percent from 23 percent,

Samsung lifted its shipments about 60 percent to 70.7 million, giving it a 32.7 percent of the market, up from 28.8 percent a year earlier.

During the first quarter Samsung shipped more smartphones than the next four vendors combined.